h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Addressing People in German the Right Way - A739307
Author: Sir Bossel --- Back from a weekend on the Bosselhamas - U132240

So here it's back from the drawing board.

Er, can I say 'you' to you?

I thought French was bad enough...

Nice article though..useful and interesting

A bit of pedantry:

#Other than in e.g. French (vous) or formerly in English, second person plural isn't used as the polite form in German anymore#

I didn't understand that line. Do you mean 'unlike French...', or 'apart from French...? Because you seem to be saying 'apart from' except that doesn't make sense to me.

One of the most confusing German idiosyncrasies is celebrated in this entry.

Thanks to the authors for this insight.

Prosit,

HELL

PS: Portuguese has that same feature. Eu (I) Tu (thou/you - friends and the like) Você (You/Your mercy - chieftains, superiors etc.). Is it clear that 'Thou' is equivalent to 'Du'? I once stumbled across this theory that English speaking people all use the polite form. God is the only entity you can use the familiar form.

PS2: When learning German abroad people almost exclusively learn the polite 'Sie' form. Those guys then have to re-learn the 'Du' form in Germany (especially when they go out bowling). This is in many cases confusing, because they tend to use the second person conjugated in the third person plural.

PS3: The verb conjugated in the third person plural is almost identical to the ground form of the verb. (e.g. haben - to have and Sie haben - you (3rd pl.) have) This facilitates the learniong of the polite form immensely. The second person singular however must be conjugated (e.g. haben - to have and Du hast - thou hast / you have). Add this to PS2 and you see the problem foreigners have with polite and familiar forms.

Hmm, comparing this with comments made on the old PR thread, I see the need for another article about the commonalities and differences between languages (this is not to say that I'm going to write it).

Anyway, a few changes have been made

There are a couple of amendments which need to be made:

'you better don't' should be 'you'd better not'; and

'heroin' should be 'heroine'.

Hi Bossel,

I think you should have placed Sie (second person, singular/plural, polite) in the 2nd row of your table. It's the same combination of letters as third person plurual, but I wouldn't have said that it's the third person that "also serves as the polite form".


But thou hast done a great job of whipping this entry into shape.

Awu.

I thought that as well, Awu, and I'm glad you've said it!

Thous was used by Quakers until fairly recently, I believe (although not *this* century.

I remember a movie (maybe a "Carry on" film) where the nurse always asked "How are we today?". Then one day she said "Oh dear, we're dead!".

But I digress

Awu.

Hi Bossel,
how recognisable for a Dutchman, but it may make it easier to use the right form when in Germany.

Do you have somehow the same problems as we have with the Belgians, where we say "jij" (familiar) and "U" (formal) and they "U" (familiar) and "jij" (formal).

Congrats! This entry has been recommended, and will now be sent to a sub-editor.

Ich gratuliere Ihnen, Herr Bossel (or I congratulate you, mr. Bossel in English) if that is the right way to address you.

OH

I haven't been paying much attention lately, and that's what I get for it... sorry, I hope the SubEd will take care of the changes.


Marjin, simply 'Bossel' is enough, and we'll have to talk about the rest at the Dutch Mini Meet

Sure, but I think I'll stick to English then.
Do I fetch you from Schiphol again?

Ooops

Yes please! Is there any time that you'd prefer? I haven't booked yet (my miles&more card is hiding somewhere) and can still choose from all the flights

I think somewhere in the afternoon, but we better discuss this on the meet-thread, in case Shazz knows about others coming by plane.